PC rental store accused of using webcams, keyloggers on customers

Rent-to-own furniture and electronics store Aaron's Inc. is being accused of …

Built-in webcams are becoming more and more common in computers these days, and in turn, they are becoming more and more of a liability. A Wyoming couple is now accusing national rent-to-own chain Aaron's Inc. of spying on them at home using their rented computer's webcam without their knowledge. Aaron's also allegedly used a keylogger and took regular screenshots of the couple's activities on the machine, leading the couple to file a class-action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Aaron's has been using a product called "PC Rental Agent" on its rent-to-own machines since at least 2007 in order to "surreptitiously access, monitor, intercept, and/or transmit electronic communications" made by Aaron's customers. Created by a company called DesignerWare, PC Rental Agent is advertised as a way to keep track of rent-to-own computers and lock out customers who fail to pay. According to the lawsuit, the product was sold to Aaron's under the guise that it was undetectable by users, and Aaron's apparently conceals the fact that it has the ability to monitor customers' activity when marketing its services.

Crystal and Brian Byrd found this out the hard way in 2010 when they rented a Dell Inspiron laptop from Aaron's, which they paid off in full in October of 2010—one month ahead of schedule. Aaron's didn't record the last payment correctly, however, leading an Aaron's store manager to show up at the Byrd home in December in order to repossess the computer. The store manager then produced a photo of Brian Byrd using the machine, taken with the Inspiron's webcam, as apparent "proof" that the Byrds were still using the computer.

The Byrds ended up calling the police, and an investigation later concluded that Aaron's "routinely installed the PC Rental Agent" on all of Aaron's rent-to-own computers. Law enforcement confirmed that the product indeed permitted the company to routinely take webcam photos, screenshots, and log the keystrokes of its customers without their knowledge or consent.

It's unclear how many other photos Aaron's might have collected on the family, but Brian Byrd told the Associated Press that he was concerned about the content of photos that were potentially taken of his wife and child.

"Crystal gets online before she gets a shower and checks her grades. Who knows? They could print that stuff off there and take it home with them," Byrd told the AP. "I've got a 5-year-old boy who runs around all day and sometimes he gets out of the tub running around for 20, 30 seconds while we're on the computer. What if they took a picture of that? I wouldn't want that kind of garbage floating around out there."

The Byrds' situation is eerily reminiscent of one that occurred last year in the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania. At that time, some parents discovered that the school district had used remote software to activate the built-in webcams on the students' school-issued computers in order to check up on them at home, while the district insisted that its "spying" policy only applied to laptops that were reported stolen. The district ended up settling two lawsuits for a total of $610,000, despite apparent e-mail evidence that the IT staff responsible for monitoring the laptops regularly viewed the students' photos for entertainment.

According to Brian Byrd, the computer in question is still in police custody as evidence, and no one from Aaron's has yet commented publicly on the case. However, the Byrds are hoping to get the suit certified as a class action so that other customers who might have been affected can get in on the lawsuit—after all, Aaron's claims to have more than 1,500 stores in the US and Canada alone, and there are bound to be others who are only now discovering that they don't have as much privacy at home as they thought.

I get madder and madder every time I hear of this sort of thing - who the hey-y-day thinks it's okay to spy on people in their home with cameras??? Doesn't SOME sort of "maybe this is wrong and morally repugnant" bell go off in their little heads somewhere???

This is pretty outrageous. This has to be a breach of wiretap and surveillance laws. I hope they make out rich just to prove the point. You have to disclose this sort of thing to your customers.

I think if they were more honest with the customers about what they could do, I don't think it would get into wiretap laws. They did own the computer up until it was completely paid off. The only question is, what happens after it gets paid off? Do they have to bring it back to the store to have it wiped so only the base OS is on it? Otherwise you run into a situation where a customer now owns the PC, but Aaron's can still check out what the owner is doing, that's the really slippery slope I think.

Not surprising, rent to own companies aren't exactly bastions of ethical behavior, they are up there with legalized loan sharks...I mean check cashing outfits that base their whole business model on the writing of a "hot check". Any company that preys on the poor and financially ignorant to dupe someone into paying 3x as much as they would retail for an item over time probably doesn't even cross its mind that spying on people even though they own the equipment in their personal and private domiciles even enters into a moral grey area.

1 - did the rental agreement specify that this software was installed? If it did, then maybe the people renting the computer simply didn't bother to read it.

2 - I'm guessing that many of the rent to own stores are on the shadier side of retail as they don't expect that many of their customers are smart enough to know or care about what their rights are.

3 - it's amazing that NOBODY at the rental store batted an eye when they implemented this. You'd think that at some point someone would've said, he maybe we shouldn't be doing this, is it even legal?

4 - to point #3, perhaps the point made in the article that the salesman told them that the software was undetectable says something about the level of intelligence the people making the decisions at Aaron's have. Ok, so maybe you can develop software that can somehow remain completely hidden inside Windows. They have to realize that such software is useless unless it phones home, and as soon as it phones home, it hits the network and gets busted.

The only question is, what happens after it gets paid off? Do they have to bring it back to the store to have it wiped so only the base OS is on it? Otherwise you run into a situation where a customer now owns the PC, but Aaron's can still check out what the owner is doing, that's the really slippery slope I think.

This is more or less what happened here. They owned it yet they were still being spied on.

I'm glad this is happening to Aaron's. They apparently just moved into my area and are carpet bombing TV with their stupid as fuck country music video commercials.

Hhgregg did this shit to. Thank god they finally calmed down about it. Commercials are still dumb as shit.

I would be absolutely furious with Aaron's for pulling this nastiness. I hope the people who thought this scheme up go to jail on child porn charges and get registered as sex offenders, which will forever ruin their lives and livelihoods.

I have to agree with the comments above. That said..... what the hell were they thinking running over to these people's house without at least calling and clearing up the situation first? And coming to repo the computer armed with pictures of the users? Dumb, just dumb. Leads me to wonder if this outfit waited until they missed their last payment, meant to use a perceived breach of contract to recover and resell the laptop, and keep the prior payments. If so, they can enjoy crops they sewed.

Not surprising, rent to own companies aren't exactly bastions of ethical behavior, they are up there with legalized loan sharks...I mean check cashing outfits that base their whole business model on the writing of a "hot check". Any company that preys on the poor and financially ignorant to dupe someone into paying 3x as much as they would retail for an item over time probably doesn't even cross its mind that spying on people even though they own the equipment in their personal and private domiciles even enters into a moral grey area.

Aaron's has sent me junkmail claiming that their stuff is several times cheaper than rent a center; amusing they weren't cherry picking their comparisons (I never looked closely before circular filing it) this would put them roughly inline with buying something on a high rate credit card. Not a smart buy, but not extortionate either.

I can't think of any justification for a rental company to be spying on its customers. It opens up way too many potentials for abuse. Even if the camera is there to help recover a stolen computer, using it at any other time is just inviting trouble. As a parent I would be very concerned that the company could be spying on my family. It's not like they even need proof the computer was being used to expect a rental fee. I think an investigation is certainly warranted.

If I were to sell a computer to someone with this software and it was found that I had taken picture of the kids or the man's wife, I would likely be face criminal charges, possibly be thrown in jail and branded a sex offender for the rest of my life no matter how rich I was.

However with Aaron's, since it is a corporation, they will face nothing more than short-term financial sanctions if they are not compelled to settle with the plaintiffs first, whereas I would be ruined for life. There should be a criminal record for corporations as well that is publicly available which affects their ability to land government contracts. Also instead of or in addition to fines I propose we raise the tax rate of negligent corporations for a length of time equal the jail sentence they would receive were they a person. Three strikes laws could apply to them as well with the obvious result being liquidation of assets.

Major, major stupidity. For what? So they could repo some $750 laptops when people don't pay up? I hope this gets class action status and ends up in a 8-figure expense for Aaron's. I think that would be a pretty strong deterrent to others who might do the same. Of course, you can't deter stupid...

This is pretty outrageous. This has to be a breach of wiretap and surveillance laws. I hope they make out rich just to prove the point. You have to disclose this sort of thing to your customers.

I think if they were more honest with the customers about what they could do, I don't think it would get into wiretap laws. They did own the computer up until it was completely paid off. The only question is, what happens after it gets paid off? Do they have to bring it back to the store to have it wiped so only the base OS is on it? Otherwise you run into a situation where a customer now owns the PC, but Aaron's can still check out what the owner is doing, that's the really slippery slope I think.

As long as it's in the contract, Aaron's can spy on your wife and kids? Look up unconscionable. There is no way Aaron's can access your webcam in this manner and prevent an employee from viewing your wife and kids in a state of undress.

this would put them roughly inline with buying something on a high rate credit card. Not a smart buy, but not extortionate either.

No a high interest rate credit card is a great deal compared to them.

Example: From their own site an X-box 360 Game Bundle (comes with a copy of Halo) goes for 69.99 for 12 months. That comes out to about $840. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that its the 250 GB (it doesn't say) making the bundle probably worth $400. That's about a 110% APR if you got it on a credit card and paid it off in one year. Their target audience are people who can't afford to pay full price for things up front, or ignorant enough to think how much a month is all that matters. Those with low income end up being their primary customer, so basically they exploit the poor and make a killing. It's not illegal, but its not right either. A 30% interest rate credit card would be a better deal for them.

WOW! Its shtuff like this that gives a bad name to IT techs and makes everyone paranoid about who/what they trust with their pc. As a reputable IT tech I hope they slame Aarons with a class action so large nothing remains of the pc rental aspect of the company but a smoking crater. Can you imagine if a big box like Best Buy was caught doing something like this?

"However, the Byrds are hoping to get the suit certified as a class action so that other customers who might have been affected can get in on the lawsuit"

Really? Really? I'm sure the Byrds' lawyers are hoping to get it certified as a class action, but the Byrds themselves would be insane for doing so. "Good news - we've accepted a settlement offer. Our law firm is getting $28M in legal fees and all members of the class are getting coupons for 50% off rental of any 1 piece of furniture for a FULL YEAR!"

The only question is, what happens after it gets paid off? Do they have to bring it back to the store to have it wiped so only the base OS is on it? Otherwise you run into a situation where a customer now owns the PC, but Aaron's can still check out what the owner is doing, that's the really slippery slope I think.

This is more or less what happened here. They owned it yet they were still being spied on.

I'm glad this is happening to Aaron's. They apparently just moved into my area and are carpet bombing TV with their stupid as fuck country music video commercials.

Hhgregg did this shit to. Thank god they finally calmed down about it. Commercials are still dumb as shit.

Please be careful when editing material between quote tags. You broke something, and made it look like I wrote that. BlackHoleSun wrote that blurb, not me.

Created by a company called DesignerWare, PC Rental Agent is advertised as a way to keep track of rent-to-own computers and lock out customers who fail to pay.

So the idea is to brick (or at least soft-brick) the computer if a customer decides to blow off payments and move to another town or something? Awesome.

Why does that require a camera or a keylogger?

Thinking about it a bit more, is there a concern about liability if you download illegal shit onto the computer while they still technically own it? Although, again, I'm not sure why that requires either a keylogger or camera.

Not necessarily, violating wire-tapping laws should easily trigger the unconscionable rules. Contracts can't make you give up legal rights, and your right to not be spied on in your home is definitely one of those. I don't think even the supreme court would find what Aarons' has done "conscionable", so they can still be sued.

"However, the Byrds are hoping to get the suit certified as a class action so that other customers who might have been affected can get in on the lawsuit"

Really? Really? I'm sure the Byrds' lawyers are hoping to get it certified as a class action, but the Byrds themselves would be insane for doing so. "Good news - we've accepted a settlement offer. Our law firm is getting $28M in legal fees and all members of the class are getting coupons for 50% off rental of any 1 piece of furniture for a FULL YEAR!"

Nope, the original plaintiffs generally get a nice deal too, although the lawyers really make out like bandits. It's everyone else in the class that gets a lame deal, but then again, most of them didn't do anything to earn it (no risks taken, etc.) so it balances out somewhat. Class members can opt out of the settlements and try suing on their own if they think they can do better. Most people don't bother however.

The Aaron's manager didn't reveal the photo until after the customer had already showed him his paid receipt. After it was too late, he admitted to the customer he wasn't supposed to have let the customer know about the photo.

Case in point. Always wipe your entire drive before you get something and install a fresh copy. Unless this program was some how wipeproof.

According the AP story, PC Rental includes something physically attached or soldered to the mobo and requires a "wand" for deactivation. Which of course, no one would ever deactivate after paying it off because they weren't told it was there in the first place. Keeps getting better and better.